I. Living as we do, far down the stream of time, when long ago the name of Christ has associated itself to all that is the most classical in literature, the most refined in art, the most exquisite in poetry, the most generous in chivalry, and the most advanced in civilisation; when the cross, no more the word of shame or the brand of ignominy, has become the banner of progress, and the crest of honour, it is very difficult for us to throw ourselves enough into the spirit of the age of St. Paul, to estimate the grandeur of thought, and the strangeness with which the words must have burst upon the world, that Christ the Nazarene, Christ the Crucified, should in all things have the pre-eminence. And yet the whole expansion of the world's history is but the fulfilment of that vision of St. Paul, that his spiritual eye saw, when he contemplated Christ and the Resurrection, and said, "that in all things He should have the pre-eminence."
II. I feel sure that no one who has been an accurate observer of life, has failed to notice the elevating and purifying influence of a true religion wherever it is received. Has it never occurred to you in life to know some mind of a rude and coarse texture brought under the power of the simple faith of the Lord Jesus Christ? You have, perhaps, watched the wonderful transformation. That intellect, once the dullest, has gone up, if not unto the very first class, yet certainly far beyond itself and above the ordinary rank. And that heart has taken a delicacy such as the best secular education rarely succeeds in giving. Christ is in him, and Christ, rising, raises the man to show that wherever Christ is, even in the poorest, darkest, lowest, most miserable sinner's heart, He will have the pre-eminence.
III. Many persons are looking a great deal into their own hearts, as if they would ever find peace by looking down there. The way to arrive at peace is to examine Christ, to magnify Christ, to take grand views of Christ, to find your evidences in Christ. An uplifted Christ is the sinner's rest.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,8th series, p. 261.
References: Colossians 1:18. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xiv., No. 839; T. Guthrie, Christ and the Inheritance of the Saints,p. 269, etc.